Multiple choice general knowledge science & technology

How long does light from the Sun take to reach Earth?

  1. 8 secs

  2. 8 mins

  3. 8 hours

  4. None of the above

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Light travels at approximately 299,792 km/s. The average Earth-Sun distance is about 150 million km. Dividing gives about 500 seconds, or roughly 8 minutes and 20 seconds. This means we always see the Sun as it was 8 minutes ago - if it suddenly disappeared, we wouldn't know for 8 minutes.